Discuss How Race And Ethnicity Perpetuate Inequality In Australia

When groups of people see themselves, or are perceived by others, to be racially distinct from the rest of a population, the question that arises is whether members of these groups are treated equally.

Politicians have long spoken of being a multicultural society, promoting tolerance and integration. Proud of a society where one can reap in financial or social status rewards through sheer hard work Ð'- where the nature of one's race or ethnicity is not a factor. Bessant (2002) said racist attitudes are alive and well today. The concepts of Ð''race' and Ð''ethnicity' perpetuate inequality for people who are considered different from the dominant group. This essay will show how race and ethnicity are at a disadvantage to equally accessing resources in Australia, such as education, health, employment, housing and other life chances.

The term Ð''race' is usually used to refer to specific groupings of people who share certain characteristics, the combinations of which allow them to be distinguished from other such groupings. Sometimes Ð''races' are defined as groups of people who are identified as different on the basis of parentage, skin colour or other physical features. At other times the defining characteristic may be nationality, language, religion or culture or a combination of all of these.

Ð''Ethnicity' means the national/cultural group to which one belongs. Generally race refers to easily visible differences, ethnicity to less clear differences. Often people are more able or more willing to name Ð''races' to which they do not belong. In Australia, the Humans Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1998) defines racism as:

an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups, that devalues and renders inferior those groups, that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society.

Racism has its roots in the belief that some people are superior because they belong to a particular race, ethnic or national group.

Racist attitudes and beliefs are misconceptions about people based on perceived racial lines and are often founded on the fear of difference, including differences in customs, values, religion, physical appearance and ways of living and viewing the world. Examples of racist behaviour include ridicule, racist abuse, property damage, racial harassment, racist propaganda, racial vilification and physical assault. It also includes practices that exploit or exclude members of particular groups from aspects of society.

Racist behaviour may be direct or indirect in nature. Direct racial discrimination is the unfair or unequal treatment of a person or group on racial grounds. An example would be employers who wont hire someone on the basis of their cultural background. This type of discrimination is usually deliberate. Indirect racial discrimination is seemly equitable on the surface, but in practice disadvantages people from particular groups. Indirect racial discrimination can occur even when there is no intention to discriminate.

Racism has played a central role in Australia's history, firstly, in the relationship between Indigenous people and the Europeans. Aborigines endured a long history of social injustice through the Europeans invasion, which saw demographic, spiritual catastrophe and cultural dispossession. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were disposed of their land and were discriminated against by the first British and European settlers. Colonisation meant local populations lost their traditional lifestyles as their lands were taken, who either, who either established direct colonial rule or set up regimes favourable to their interests. Critical to this process was the widespread belief that Europeans were inherently superior to and deserved to rule over Ð''their' colonies and the people they had acquired.

Indigenous people have been in Australia for more than 100,000 years, however it was only in the 1967 referendum that gave Indigenous people the right to vote, to be counted in the census and classified as people. "Despite popular images of Australia as a country in which everyone gets a Ð''fair go', Australian history is full of both institutional and popular racism". (Van Krieken, 200).

Ethnic and Indigenous people are at a disadvantage with acquiring education. For a person to obtain education, one needs income. To receive income, one needs a job and to get a job one needs skills or qualification, which brings one back to the need to obtain education. An individual's chance of education is influenced by the socio-economic status of one's parents. It is a social inequality